Agency Plus: Exclusive Freelancer vs Non-Exclusive Freelancer Handicapping

[cybercitymedia]

I want to propose something and I'm asking for signatures in the comments.

At this moment, there is a policy that is handicapping Agency Plus accounts.

If you connect your Freelancer Account to your Agency Account and you set it to Non-Exclusive, you're unable to upgrade your Freelancer Account from Basic to Plus. As a result, you're not receiving the free connects that you should be receiving monthly. Basic is 10 & Plus would be 80 connects.

Reference: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/360057604814-11-24-FREE-Connects-to-Do-More-on-Upwork-

Here's the problem if you're paying for Agency Plus and you set your Freelancer Account to Exclusive, why aren't you getting those 80 connects that you would be receiving if you were paying for Freelancer Plus. 

Now, I understand that UpWork profits off the memberships, so it would be in their best interest to handicap the Agency Plus Accounts. Essentially, requiring Freelancers to set their Freelancer accounts to Non-Exclusive & double paying for Freelancer Plus & Agency Plus Accounts.

However, this just doesn't make sense in my mind. Especially, if you're trying to build a name for your agency on UpWork. You'll want to run those projects through the Agency Account, not through your Freelancer Account. This is because the site just doesn't allow you to showcase your Freelance work as representation of what your Agency has accomplished. 

I find this to be negligent & aggregious. I think the only resolution is to provide Agency Plus accounts with the same benefits as the Freelancer Plus accounts, 80 Free Monthly Connects. It really doesn't hurt the bottom line of UpWork because lets face it, they don't care who the connects are spent on at the end of the day, whether it be Exclusive Freelancer or the Non-Exclusive Freelancer. 

Update: Another resolution would be that Freelancer Plus is baked into the Agency Plus owner's Freelancer Account. This just pretty much seems like a no brainer to me.

So let's get those 80 Free Connects for Agency Plus accounts, let me get a second in the comments below.

[BojanS]

Hi Trent,

Thank you for your feedback! We'll be sure to share it with our team that's working on improving agency Memberships as Katrina pointed out here. While the most recent update to Connects doesn't change agency Memberships, agencies can still benefit from getting bonus Connects from interviews they win.